Stop The Nashua Asphalt Plant!
The proposed asphalt plant poses health threats to the already burdened surrounding community.
Newport Construction Company has submitted an application to build a new drum asphalt plant at 145-149 Temple Street in Nashua. In June 2023, the Nashua Planning Board denied the local approvals necessary to construct the plant. Newport has appealed that decision to the Superior Court, where it is currently pending. The site is very close to nearby homes, and the surrounding area is also home to schools, hospitals, and other important facilities including day cares, nursing homes, and social services for the most vulnerable community members. The community is also mostly made up of people of color and people who are low-income, and many who live there are not native English speakers. It is a family neighborhood, and many children walk by the proposed plant location daily on their way to school or the nearby bus stop.
A view of the proposed site and Newport's offices, which are right next to a bus stop and in an area that many children travel through.
The neighborhood, most commonly referred to as East Hollis, is envisioned as a vibrant mixed-use district. The community vision for East Hollis is a neighborhood that is pleasantly walkable and bike-friendly, with green space and a cohesive and lively variety of shops, storefronts, and residences. The area is part of Nashua's transit-oriented development overlay district, and is identified in the city's most recent master plan as being a key open space resource. The addition of an asphalt plant here, and the increased truck traffic, fumes, and harmful pollutants it will bring, are not in alignment with this vision.
Air pollution from the plant itself, as well as from the hundreds of trucks (including heavy diesel trucks) that will visit the plant each day, will have serious health impacts on the surrounding community, which is already severely overburdened. This storymap highlights data showing how the community is already overburdened, both in terms of existing health impacts and because it is an environmental justice community.
How to use this storymap: This storymap illustrates particular characteristics about the site, including demographics and environmental and health threats that already burden the community. In each map window, you can zoom in or out and navigate around the map. You can also click on specific elements of the map, such as block groups, to learn more information. Be sure to zoom out to compare the area around the proposed plant to the rest of the state - notice how much it stands out in terms of environmental burden and demographics.
Site of the proposed new asphalt plant.
Community Demographics & Environmental Injustice
The site is located in a community that is predominately people of color, low-income, and has limited English proficiency. Compare the block group where the site is located, and surrounding block groups within a 2-mile radius, to the rest of the state by zooming out in the maps.
This map shows percentage of the population that are people of color. The block group where the asphalt plant is located is mostly people of color - 53 percent.
The circles represent distances of 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1 mile, and 2 miles around the site.
This map shows the percentage of households in each block group that have limited English proficiency, or where no one over the age of 14 reports speaking English "very well." In the block group where the plant is located, 11 percent of all households are limited English proficient (LEP). An adjacent block group is even higher, with 41 percent of households being LEP.
This map shows median household income at the block group level. The median household income for the block group where the site is located is $35,342 and surrounding block groups are similarly low income. This is much lower than the state median household income of $83,449.
Critical Locations
The below map shows nearby schools, hospitals, and other places that are likely to have a higher concentration of people who may be sensitive to poor air quality.
The circles represent distances of 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1 mile, and 2 miles around the site.
Impacts on Public Health
EJScreen is a tool created by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that combines environmental and demographic information into an index and compares an area to the rest of the state. The asphalt plant site is located in a block group that is above the 95th percentile for all six indices, reflecting the severe environmental burdens that this area is already experiencing. This index reflects a comparison to the rest of New Hampshire, and is notably higher than much of the state.
The below map series shows the EJScreen index for six different environmental indicators related to air quality that all have negative impacts on human health. The environmental burdens are fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone, diesel particulate matter, Health impacts from these pollutants include asthma, lung cancer, and cardiovascular diseases, and greater risk of severe COVID-19, among others. Click through the map series below, and zoom in and out or use your cursor to see more of the state. Learn more about EJScreen and health impacts of air pollution at https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen and in the sources linked at the end of the storymap.
Fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, refers to particulate matter in the air that is 2.5 microns or less in diameter (about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair). These small particulates pose a threat to human health because they can penetrate deeply into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream. The EPA has documented that exposure to PM2.5 is associated with health effects such as elevated risk of premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases or lung cancer, and increased health problems such as asthma attacks. Moreover, the EPA has found that people with pre-existing heart or lung disease, children and older adults, and people of color are at particular risk.
The EPA has documented an association between exposure to ambient ozone and a variety of health outcomes, including reduction in lung function, increased inflammation and increased hospital admissions and mortality. People most at risk from breathing air containing ozone include people with asthma, children, older adults, and people who are active outdoors, especially outdoor workers. Children are at greatest risk from exposure to ozone because their lungs are still developing and they are more likely to be active outdoors when ozone levels are high, which increases their exposure. Children are also more likely than adults to have asthma.
Diesel particulate matter (DPM) refers to particulate matter generated from the combustion of diesel fuel. Diesel exhaust is a complex mixture of thousands of gases and fine particles that contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants. These include many known or suspected cancer-causing substances, such as benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde. In addition to long term cancer risk, exposure to diesel exhaust can have immediate health effects. It can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, and it can cause coughs, headaches, light-headedness and nausea. Exposure to diesel exhaust also causes inflammation in the lungs, which may aggravate chronic respiratory symptoms and increase the frequency or intensity of asthma attacks.
Air toxics, often referred to as hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), are pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects, or adverse environmental effects. The EJScreen Air Toxics Cancer Risk data reflects lifetime cancer risk from inhalation of air toxics.
This index reflects respiratory health threats other than cancer that are caused by a lifetime of exposure to air toxics.
Proximity to motor vehicle traffic is associated with greater exposure to toxic gases and particulate matter, as well as increased noise. Vehicle-related emissions include ultrafine particulates and other components of PM2.5, lead and other metals, air toxics such as benzene, nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide (CO), as well as precursors that add to the formation of ground level ozone (O3) and smog. Research has repeatedly shown that living near highly trafficked roads is related to increased risk of a variety of adverse health outcomes, including asthma, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, stress, and increased rates of mortality.
Make your voice heard!
A packed room for a Nashua Planning Board hearing on the plant.
The proposed asphalt plant would add further burdens to a neighborhood already dealing with poor air quality, health impacts, and environmental and racial injustices. It is the very opposite of the vision of the neighborhood held by both the community and Nashua. The Nashua community presented strong opposition to the plant, turning up and speaking out against the asphalt plant at several Planning Board meetings, and successfully convinced the Planning Board to deny the application. Newport has appealed that decision in Superior Court, where it is currently pending. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has moved to intervene in that appeal and will continue to fight the asphalt plant.
You can find the application material and comments opposing the plant on the Nashua Planning Board's website under "Related Documents."
